1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of displaying/editing time-series data and, more particularly, to a video data editing technique which can make editing of video data efficient.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional video data editing screen is provided with not only a main frame for displaying video data in a window formed from a two-dimensional plane but also a small frame for navigation which is located near the main frame. Scenes displayed a predetermined time before and after a frame displayed in the main frame are displayed in the navigate frame. The user grasps a preceding scene of the video data by watching the navigate frame, and performs editing operation at a proper timing.
In the conventional editing method, however, since the main frame and navigate frame are arranged vertically or horizontally, the user must always observe the two frames. This becomes visually burdensome to the user. In contrast to a still data frame on a plane, a substantial problem is that since video data are contents to which the time base is added. It is, therefore, generally considered difficult to handle the time base in a window expanded into a two-dimensional plane.
Under the circumstances, therefore, a processing method has been proposed (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-359777), in which an arbitrary spatiotemporal area shape in a video is displayed in a three-dimensional space defined by the X-axis, Y-axis, and time, and spatiotemporal area information is input and corrected by operating the displayed shape in the three-dimensional space.